1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a two piece buckle assembly that is held together by magnets on both the male and female portions. In particular, the invention relates to a buckle assembly having laterally offset magnets on the male and female portions, so that the attraction between the magnets forces the male and female buckle portions together and slides them laterally (perpendicular to the pulling direction of the straps on each buckle) into a fully locked position so that locking legs on the male portion engage into locking slots on the female portion.
2. The Prior Art
It is known to place magnets in belt buckles in order to connect the two ends together in a simple manner. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,857,169 to Chung shows a buckle in which the male and female parts each have a magnetic element which attracts the two parts together. A hook element on the male part slides within a groove of the female part when the magnets are placed in alignment to keep the parts locked together.
This buckle has several drawbacks, however. In particular, the magnets are not fully molded within the buckle material and can easily fall out, thus eliminating the effectiveness of the buckle. In addition, loss of tension on the buckle straps can cause the buckle to inadvertently disengage because the magnets are offset from each other only in the longitudinal direction.